Tactics: Jews and Moroccan Independence

Chapter 3 uncovers the previously untold story of Jewish participation in the Moroccan national independence movement, disproportionately from within the Moroccan Communist Party. It examines Moroccan Jewish political life in conjunction with Israel’s establishment in 1948, Moroccan independence in 1956, and strife in the Middle East. Friction developed between the Communist and the Istiqlal Parties in the common fight to throw off colonial rule. Tensions also reigned within the Moroccan Jewish community as it navigated an escalating series of questions regarding its future in Morocco. Most Moroccan Jews were not politically active. To most, the Jewish Communists represented a liability for the stability of the community. Meanwhile, questions of Jewish loyalty to Morocco and the identity of Morocco as a Muslim state became linked to anti-Zionism and Arab nationalism. Increasingly, Moroccan Jewish Communists were isolated from the wider Jewish community, moving in opposite practical and ideological trajectories.